. >> i'm david capel, the chief of joint operations. i work at the northwood headquarters. [inaudible] >> thank you. >> james stevenson, i'm currently a member of the royal defense studies at came out of afghanistan about two and half months ago, the deputy commander army within the nato training mission in afghanistan. >> well, thank you very much indeed. let's begin by asking you a general question. how are things going in helmand, in terms of the level of violence? give us a rundown on how things are going, and whether you think it will get better, stay the same, get worse. who would like -- >> i will start and i think i shall give the recent -- commander the four. my judgment is that progress is being delivered, that we are increasingly seeing an afghan security operatives -- apparatus that it became more confident and vibrant, that the levels of violence are beginning to go down. and that we are also seeing much more ownership by the afghan national security forces across the whole of it. i think that is true also across the rest of afghanistan, and i also think that w